UPFA bags CP, NWP; TNA wins North

JVP suffers crushing defeat in all provinces UNP loses 6 seats in CP and UPFA 3 in NWP TNA takes all 14 electorates in North Govt. wins 39 out of 40 electorates in CP, NWP SF’s DP emerges third force in NWP, CP

September 22, 2013, 10:09 pm

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The UPFA bagged both the Central and North-Western Provinces while the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK/TNA) secured the Northern PC with ease at Saturday’s Provincial Council polls.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa led the campaign in all three provinces for the UPFA.

Veteran politician R. Sampanthan (Trincomalee District MP), who spearheaded the TNA campaign is widely believed to be responsible for bringing in former Supreme Court Judge Vigneswaran as the party’s chief ministerial candidate.

Of the 40 electorates in the CP and NWP, the UNP managed to win only Mahanuwara by polling 10,047 votes (44.80%). The UPFA polled 9,156 (40.83%). The ITAK secured all 14 electorates in the Northern Province (10 in the Jaffna district and one each in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Mannar and Vavuniya).The UPFA obtained 716,247 votes (60.16%) and UNP 330,815 (27.79%) in the Central Province comprising the electoral districts of Mahanuwara, Matale and Nuwara Eliya. The UPFA and the UNP received 36 and 16 seats respectively in the 58-member Central PC.

The remaining six seats went to Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s Democratic Party (2), Ceylon Workers Congress-P wing (2), Up country People’s Front (1) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (1).

In spite of polling 13,887 votes (1.17 per cent) the JVP couldn’t secure a seat in the Central Province.

At the last PC polls in the Central Province, in February 2009, the UPFA polled 650,203 votes (59.53%) and bagged 36 seats while the UNP obtained 422,125 votes (38.65%) to win 22 seats. Saturday’s poll saw the UNP lose six seats whereas the UPFA managed to retain all its seats (36).

The UPFA swept the polls in the North Western Province obtaining 705,188 votes (66.43%) to secure 34 seats. The UNP polled 257,011 votes (24.21%) to win 12 seats while the Democratic Party secured 3 seats by polling 46,114 votes (4.34%). The SLMC (2) and the JVP (1) shared the remaining seats.

The UPFA failed to retain the number of seats it had in the previous council. At the February 2009 polls, the UPFA polled 668, 743 (69.43%) to secure 37 seats, while the UNP obtained 270,346 votes (28.07%) and the JVP 20,428 votes (2.12%) to secure 14 and 01 seats, respectively.

Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya told The Island that there hadn’t been serious incidents on the day of the polling, though the Election Secretariat received a spate of complaints. Deshapriya said none of the incidents were serious enough to warrant a re-polling and therefore all results had been released.

At the last PC election, the Election Secretariat suspended the Puttalam District results to pave the way for fresh election in one polling division, subsequent to complaints of serious polls malpractices.